I've been Handbraking all of my movies, but it's a really slow process on my 2007 Macbook - it takes over an hour to do a movie, and about 30-45 minutes to do an episode of a TV show. Would this be significantly faster on a newer Macbook? Mine has the 2Ghz Core 2 Duo and only 1 GB of RAM, and I've been thinking of upgrading either to the new 13' MBP that came out today or the new MB whenever they refresh next. If Handbrake is the kind of thing that will run faster on a new computer it will be one more reason to upgrade. Click to expand.Agreed.
Handbrake will use as much processor power as your machine can throw at it. The faster your processor is that faster your encodes are going to be. I recently went from an '08 2.5GHz core2duo MBP giving me about real time encodes to a custom desktop running a i7 at 4.1GHz that can encode a TV show in 9-10 min.
Here's an analogous comparison. My older Windows XP PC, which I use on occasion for HandBrake 'cause it's there, has an Athlon 64 3500+ processor, in the same class as the faster Pentium 4s. It takes almost as long to HandBrake a movie as it would be to play it- well over an hour for most feature-length movie encodes on iPhone/iPod Touch settings, and even longer for higher resolutions.
![Handbrake Handbrake](/uploads/1/2/4/7/124796385/629747044.jpg)
By comparison, the iMac in my sig is a Core i3. It does most feature-length encodes in iPhone/iPod touch settings in 15-20 minutes. My guess is, since the new MBPs boast twice the processor speed of previous ones, that HandBrake encodes would take half that time.
I've been Handbraking all of my movies, but it's a really slow process on my 2007 Macbook - it takes over an hour to do a movie, and about 30-45 minutes to do an episode of a TV show. Would this be significantly faster on a newer Macbook? Mine has the 2Ghz Core 2 Duo and only 1 GB of RAM, and I've been thinking of upgrading either to the new 13' MBP that came out today or the new MB whenever they refresh next. If Handbrake is the kind of thing that will run faster on a new computer it will be one more reason to upgrade.
Click to expand.Agreed. Also make sure that you have the latest nightly build and not the official latest release version - it has some bugs in it.
Back to the original question. How do you speed up handbrake? I take you guys have not found the secret settings? Open terminal and type in SET CPUFASTMODE = TRUE and then hit 'Enter' Seriously guys, there is no way to 'speed up' encoding movies, other than buying a new, faster computer. I am not sure what you're expecting from a 2007 or a 2008 CPU? Handbrake is multi-threaded and multi-core compatible so the more CPU power it has, the faster it will be. Encoding is a very CPU intensive activity.
A 2010 12 core Mac Pro will encode like there is no tomorrow. A 2010 6 core Mac Pro will do the job quite adequately. A 2011 iMac i7 3.4 will do the job well and so forth. I always thought the primary device for Handbrake encodes was the graphic card. I don't think the CPU is that intensively used when I do encodes, but being an iMac I have no choice about the graphics card i use.
I know the next generation iMac to mine has a much better graphics card and will encode about twice as fast. The CPU is only 0.2Ghz faster with no change in FSB or RAM speed. Lion makes use of GPL processing, which Windows already does so this is why, in general, Windows on the same hardware will encode faster than Leopard (for example).
However, Lion should reverse that now. External H264 encoders help as they remove the GPL processing offboard from the graphics chip.
This will increase the speed of Handbrake considerably. Get Elgato Turbo.H264 HD and you will see a dramatic difference in your performance.especially on older Macs.
I always thought the primary device for Handbrake encodes was the graphic card. I don't think the CPU is that intensively used when I do encodes, but being an iMac I have no choice about the graphics card i use. I know the next generation iMac to mine has a much better graphics card and will encode about twice as fast.
The CPU is only 0.2Ghz faster with no change in FSB or RAM speed. Lion makes use of GPL processing, which Windows already does so this is why, in general, Windows on the same hardware will encode faster than Leopard (for example). However, Lion should reverse that now.
External H264 encoders help as they remove the GPL processing offboard from the graphics chip. This will increase the speed of Handbrake considerably. Get Elgato Turbo.H264 HD and you will see a dramatic difference in your performance.especially on older Macs.